Panchayat Heads Can now Review Confidential Reports

The top-ranking officials in the panchayat raj institutions of village, taluk and zilla panchayats can no longer ignore the presidents of the three-tier local bodies as the State government has now given powers to them to review the annual confidential reports of officials.

Such a rational step has been taken by the State government, said to be for the first time in the country,

Announcing this at a press conference in Bangalore on Monday, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister, H. K. Patil, said only the chief executive officers of ZPs had been excluded from this as they belonged to the Indian Administrative Services cadre which had separate procedures regarding the confidential reports.

He explained that the confidential reports of executive officers of taluk panchayats could now be reviewed by the presidents of the taluk panchayats.

The chief executive officer of the zilla panchayat concerned would be the accepting authority for such reports who would verify the facts before taking a call on whether to accept the reviews or modify them.

But if the CEO has to modify the reviews, then he has to justify his decision by mentioning the valid reason.

At the ZP level, the confidential reports of Deputy Secretary and Planning Directors can now be reviewed by the ZP presidents, while the Additional Chief Secretary to the government or the Principal Secretary will be the accepting authority for such reviews.

The powers to review the confidential reports of lower-level officials have been given to top-ranking officials of the panchayat bodies.